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The administration’s new two-pronged initiative, operating under a law passed by Congress last year, will consist of a bond purchase program to support new lending by these agencies, and a temporary credit and liquidity program to boost agency access to credit sources for their existing bonds.

The eventual size of the program will be set according to agency demand, but it does have a ceiling, said Michael Barr, Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions, during a conference call with reporters this afternoon.

“The program levels are really being built from the ground up,” Barr said. “We need to have a much more refined sense of both demand and eligibility to determine the appropriate scaling of the program.”

Whatever the eventual size of the program, Barr said American taxpayers will be reimbursed through fees paid to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Department of the Treasury. All these agencies are major backers of mortgages.

“There will be strong taxpayer protections,” he said, adding that the “expected cost to the federal government is zero” because of these fees.

Another “temporary” housing entitlement with “strong taxpayer protections” and an “expected cost to the federal government” of “zero.”